ISRAELI jets knocked out a power substation near Beirut yesterday, plunging the city of 1.5 million people into almost total darkness on the fifth day of a military campaign against Hizbullah guerrillas in Lebanon.
Israeli helicopters also blasted Beirut's southern suburbs with rockets while its jets and artillery pounded southern villages and towns, from which hundreds of thousands of people have fled, creating a massive refugee problem.
The attacks brought the casualty toll in Lebanon so far to at least 23 dead and 124 wounded, most of them civilians.
At a special UN Security Council session this morning Lebanon "demanded "swift action" to halt Israeli "madness". US officials made it clear in public and private statements that Washington would use its veto to block any concrete action.
Power was only recently restored to Beirut in an operation managed by ESB International.
Israel told the last of the 250,000 inhabitants of Tyre to leave and ordered inhabitants of seven more villages to leave, bringing to more than 100 the total number of towns and villages whose populations it forced out.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese Prime Minister, Mr Rafik al-Hariri, was quoted as saying Syria was ready to help restrain Hizbullah guerrillas if Israel ceased its attacks on Lebanon.
Saudi Arabia asked the EU to pressurise Israel to stop its attacks on Lebanon, the Kuwait News Agency reported. The Saudi foreign ministry undersecretary for economic affairs, Mr Ma'amoun Kurdi, made the request at a meeting in Riyadh with an EU troika delegation of Italian, Spanish and Irish officials, the state-owned agency said. The EU officials flew to Kuwait.
In Dublin the Department of Foreign Affairs said Ireland welcomed a French ceasefire initiative which was widely regarded in other EU capitals as an empty gesture.
The French Foreign Minister, Mr Herve de Charette met the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, in Jerusalem. Mr de Charette, who travels today to Damascus and Beirut, said little afterwards but an Israeli official said Israel wanted the US not France, to mediate.
"Peres does not want to give [the French President, Mr Jacques] Chirac the prize," he said. A US spokesman declined to criticise the Israeli bombardment.
Mr Peres said beforehand that it was too early to negotiate an end to the assault.
In south Lebanon, Israeli gunners pounded largely deserted towns and villages, setting buildings ablaze. Helicopters and aircraft launched a dozen raids to strike at Hizbullah guerrillas and their outposts.
The guerrillas fired dozens of katyusha rockets into northern Israel settlements, damaging a synagogue and wounding three people. Five others were treated for shock.
Hizbullah again threatened to hit Israeli interests worldwide to avenge the blitz. Asked if Hizbullah would attack Israeli embassies or interests worldwide, its deputy leader, Sheikh Naeem Qassem, said: "We will not give them safety and security for free. Let them take precautions and measures and let them know they bare in danger anywhere and at any time."
Lebanese officials worked desperately to find food, lodging, mattresses, clothes and medicines for refugees pouring into Beirut from the south.
Beirut echoed repeatedly to the thunder of anti-aircraft guns along a coastal are from east to west Beirut targeting Israeli planes over the capital.
The upper floor of a two-storey building in the suburbs was destroyed and at least eight people were wounded. It was not known whether the building was used by Hizbullah. A civilian was wounded in the power station attack.
. Irish Unifil troops were reported to be still safely sheltering in underground bunkers caring for several hundred refugees.